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For the second year in a row, eHealth Ontario executive Greg Reed has refused his bonus.

Reed’s $81,250 payout, awarded by the agency’s board of directors, was in recognition for “his outstanding leadership” during the 2011-12 fiscal year, said board chair Ray Hession.

No other senior executive was to receive extra money this year at the electronic records agency, government sources say, and it was the board that signed off on the bonus, not Health Minister Deb Matthews.

The performance bonus is about 25 per cent of his $329,000 salary.

After an exhaustive search, Reed was brought in to replace former eHealth CEO Sarah Kramer. She left the agency in 2009 amidst a spending scandal that included untendered contracts and hefty salaries being earned by consultants billing $3,000 a day while charging taxpayers for muffins and tea.

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“This is the second consecutive year that Mr. Reed has declined his performance pay. I would like to take the opportunity to state emphatically that he continues to enjoy the full trust and confidence of the eHealth Ontario Board of Directors,” Hession said in a statement.

The decision to turn the money down was lauded by Health Minister Deb Matthews.

The Ontario government is battling a $15-billion deficit and it is asking all public sector workers to tighten their belts and take wage freezes in these austere times.

“He continues to recognize the need to go above and beyond in recognition of our fiscal constraints. He is leading by example,” she said.

eHealth Ontario is tasked with creating digital medical records for all Ontarians by 2015. That goal became derailed temporarily during the scandal.

However, Matthews said eHealth has made significant progress under Reed’s leadership.

“Today, approximately 9 million Ontarians now have an electronic medical record, up from only 770,000 in 2005,” she said in a statement.

Reed could not be reached for comment.

However, both the New Democrats and the Progressive Conservatives were stunned Reed was to collect anything in the first place.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said the move is typical of the McGuinty Liberal government.

“Again, it shows exactly what we’ve been saying all along, which is the government talks a good game about freezing wages, but some wages are more frozen than others,” Horwath told reporters on Monday.

“It just shows this government is not serious about protecting the interest of everyday folks, maybe their well connected friends and themselves and the interest they take care of . . . but certainly not everyday people,” she said.

Tory MPP Lisa Thompson (Huron—Bruce) said the Reed bonus speaks to Matthews’ “mismanagement” of the health file and consistent overspending by the Liberal government.

“When our province is in such a huge economic crisis we have to take a look at all of our overspending and I can tell you it’s pretty rich when some folks are looking for bonus payouts,” she said.

The payback is a signal of shared sacrifice, said Sanford DeVoe, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management.

It also shows he is trying to improve and build on the relationships he has with the people he works with, added DeVoe.

And when it comes to distributing money, it is a fair practice to align a bonus with one’s performance, he added. But sometimes it is hard for taxpayers to see goals achieved.

“The fact it comes from public money certainly gives all taxpayers a vested interest in what is going on. When it is a private company that they have nothing to do with, well people think, ‘It doesn’t affect me.’ However, public money invests every taxpayer,” said DeVoe.

“I think people were concerned the public would see this as completely unfair.”

But the bonus was part of his contract and based on a performance metric, DeVoe said. “This guy couldn’t catch a break. It sounds like he is certainly trying to smooth things over.”

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